This is a compilation of the Class Notes section in Classic Boat collated over 12 years and updated for this volume. It covers the design and class histories of 156 different types of sailing craft. And it’s very much a book to take sailing with you, with a ready-reference two-page spread of sail numerals and devices to help identify boats when out on the water.
The contents are split between dinghies and dayboats, yachts and then Olympic classes, mainly for ease of reference; there are a huge range of boat types, from the Optimist or Mirror dinghy up to the J-Class (as it was in 2012).
Vanessa Bird took up the task of compiling these notes, which appear in the magazine every month – it must be one of the longest running series of its type in a magazine anywhere. Even when she left the staff of CB and moved over to Yachting Monthly, she continued to write the page, and it was an original ambition to compile them into a book.
Vanessa Bird compiled most of the designs and has turned what can be a dry subject into a really good read, plus it’s main aim is to give the essential information – dimensions, materials, design and build details. Some entries include how classes have benefited from the resurgence of interest in classic boats as techniques for restoring them have been rediscovered. Some classes took a mould from an older boat and recreated them in glassfibre, widening their appeal to new owners. And while the book does not claim to tell all the history surrounding the boats, the ‘notes’ are more than enough to give readers a good background.
It’s a useful book and serves to inform of the hugely varied types of boat which we deem to be classics. DH
Pub Adlard Coles, 2012, 160pp, illustrated hardback, from £13.99 ISBN 978-1-4081-5891-3